Monday January 5, 2026, Solidarity benefit for the case of our comrade Kurdish B.E., targeted by the Greek authorities. Food served from 7pm, no reservation.
On 21 November 2025, the political refugee from Turkey, B.E., received a summon from the Asylum Service for the re-examination and possible revocation of his political asylum, as it is alleged that “his person may constitute a threat to the national security of the country,” pursuant to Article 96 of Law 4939/2022. B.E. is only one of several political refugees who, over the past six months, have been placed in procedures for the revocation of their asylum and their deportation through the use of the — legally enshrined — narrative of “national security.”
In recent years, the concept of “national security” has increasingly acquired broader characteristics in public discourse and is no longer limited to the narrow definition of national/state defense against external and internal enemies. It now also encompasses notions such as “energy security,” cybersecurity, and is even discussed in relation to the “demographic problem,” social cohesion, and so on. In this way, national security becomes a tool for implementing a wide range of policies within a racist, anti-refugee and anti-migrant framework, which is socially legitimized through appeals to “national security”.
Under the pretext of national security, the Greek state seeks to dismantle every legally and socially established right of refugees and migrants with regard to internationally recognized and transparent procedures regarding the right to asylum. The applications of “national security” are instrumental in nature and primarily aim to construct the concept of social threat as defined by the prevailing state strategy in each case.
They are therefore not based on a single, unified legal procedure; rather, they are activated in a fragmented manner across various fields such as constitutional provisions, international protection processes and public order, border control and migration management policies as well as intelligence generation activities. With the assumption of the Ministry of Migration and Asylum by Makis Voridis and subsequently Thanos Plevris, and with the enactment and implementation of the new law on migration and asylum within the framework of corresponding EU policies, penalties — both financial and custodial — have been increased for “irregular” migrants.
At the same time, any form of irregular stay in the country is criminalized indefinitely, the right to asylum is drastically restricted, the concept of a safe country of return is expanded, entry bans are imposed on grounds of public order and national security, and the legal rationale for detention is extended, including issues related to security concerns.
The duration of entry bans imposed for reasons of national security is extended from five to ten years, with the possibility of further extension for up to an additional five years. The Ministry of Migration and Asylum, under the pretext of the “increasing influence of the Turkish mafia” in the country, is implementing revocations of asylum and residence permits for Turkish and Kurdish migrants and refugees and targeting political refugees by making use of national security legislation.
The targeting of political refugees originating from Turkey under the pretext of other policy agendas (such as the “fight against the Turkish mafia”) is neither a novelty nor a peculiarity of the Greek state. It constitutes a widespread practice across Europe and beyond, which frequently resurfaces as a bargaining chip in EU–Turkey relations. Thus, many EU member states (including Germany, Austria, France, among others), through bilateral agreements with Turkey, proceed to deny or revoke political asylum for Turkish nationals who are persecuted in Turkey and who face immediate danger if deported there.
At the same time, the narrative of Turkey as a “safe country” for both political and non-political refugees is used to deprive Turkish nationals in EU countries of the right to asylum. In such a case during 2025, Germany initially refused to grant asylum to an individual convicted for political reasons in Turkey and subsequently, following pressure, proceeded to recognize refugee status and to annul the deportation order.
In the Greek state, practices targeting political refugees — especially those who had an active role in social movements in Turkey — have long constituted a bargaining tool in Greek-Turkish bilateral relations, regardless of which government is in power. To date, the Turkish state has made use of the issuance of arrest warrants addressed to Greece, either at the intergovernmental level or through Interpol.
Many of these warrants and the corresponding prosecutions have collapsed both legally and socially, and those targeted have not been returned to Turkey.
Political refugees whose asylum status has been reaffirmed in the past — on the grounds that any return to Turkey would pose an immediate danger to their lives — are now being threatened with the revocation of their political asylum on the grounds of “national security”.
Many political refugees have been imprisoned under brutal conditions in Turkey before settling in Greece. In this way, the procedures for revoking asylum for refugees who are on the Turkish state’s targeting lists constitute a blatant violation of even the most fundamental formal obligations of the Greek state toward refugees.
On the basis of the above, the Greek state violates the most basic rights of political refugees and directly challenges every international convention it has itself signed, under the pretext of “national security.”
The Greek state is fully aware of all of the above; for this reason, through the use of Article 96 of Law 4939/2022, it grants itself the right to bypass any conventional obligation by instructing the Directorate for the Support of the Asylum Service to assess the “general political, social, and economic situation prevailing in the countries of origin of the persons concerned,” in order to determine whether the safety of individuals subject to asylum re-examination would be at risk in the event of deportation. Under the new framework for the re-examination of asylum, refugees who attempt to exercise their legal rights through appeals face uncertainty and high legal costs. In the notifications they receive, they are informed that, based on confidential files in the possession of the Asylum Service, they are being called for a re-examination of their right to international protection.
Cases concerning migrants, citing threats to national security, are hastily closed under a regime of strict confidentiality; in this way, procedures are hidden away from public scrutiny and turned into faits accomplis. The systematic shift of the Greek state toward closed and opaque administrative procedures highlights the political failure of the implementation and promotion of its agreements with the Turkish state in the previous period.
This is also the starting point of our own response. What the Greek and Turkish states seek to achieve through opaque and individualized procedures, far from public scrutiny, we will expose and confront through our collective struggles. Information and public disclosure constitute key tools in this process. By contrast, silence and inaction pave the way for the normalization of state targeting of political refugees.
Migrants and refugees are not alone. We stand in political, material, and moral solidarity with political refugees against every form of interstate persecution, Greek and Turkish alike, until their full vindication!
Volkseten Vegazulu is a people’s kitchens existing since the very beginning of Joe’s Garage, June 2005. Your donations are welcome. Food is vegan, no reservation. All benefits go to social & political struggles. Joe’s Garage is a space run by volunteers. Without a collective effort, without your active participation, we’re remaining closed. Get in touch in you feel like giving a hand. We’re always looking for cooks. Any help is welcome in the kitchen. Experience not required. If you want to know which days are still available, mail us.
